Unit+5+-+The+Three+Phases+of+the+Civil+War

=Unit 5 - The Three Phases of the Civil War - 1846-1877=



__Ableman vs. Booth__
- 1859 - WI passes Personal Liberty Laws (free blacks/black claiming to be free would be protected) - in direct conflict w/ Fugitive slave law; overturned after a while
 * indicates breakdown of politic system?

Anthony Bewley
- a Northern Meth preacher w/ neg. views of slavery, but didn't preach about that - in TX, paranoid slaveowners hearing rumors of a slave insurrection, blame Bewley -> chase him across several states before catching him, bring him back to TX and hang him - N. Meth and S. Meth have different reactions - N. Meth, "how could this happen?!", S. Meth, "If he was guilty, he got what he deserved. If not, he's in a better place now" - split btw N and S Meth (largest religious group in US at the time, so really big deal!)
 * showing that polarization has reached unprecedented levels (affecting even religion)

Antietam
- battle in MD, turning point for the N - Lee didn't get a S victory on N soil -> no Eur. recognition and thus, no help - McClellen fired for incompetence (battle only a draw when it should have been a win) - lincoln gets the Emanc. Proc. out
 * S don't get Eur. help, N. gets motive and moral boost

Appomattox
- page 383 - April 9, 1865, Lee surrenders to Grant - Grant confiscates arms, allows the men to keep the horses tho (to plow fields more easily at home) - other Confederate armies follow suit
 * "official" end of Civil War

Bear Flag Revolt
- page 325 - John Slidell fails to buy 1/3 of Mexico; Polk plans on using force - Polk sends fleet down and around to CA (fleet 1st led by Sloat, then replaced by Stockton) - John C. Fremont, "Pathfinder," sent to explore W part of US -> "wanders" into CA w/ cannons - Polk sends message to Thomas Larkin (bigshot in CA), "if you all start a rebellion vs. Mex, we'll assist" - rebellion does occur under a banner with a bear on it (hence the name) - by Jan. 1847, CA was US territory
 * gained CA for US territory -> issue of slave/free state

Beecher's Bibles
- fear of migrating pro-slavery people making Kansas a slave state - New England Immigrant Aid Society sends people to KS, set up town of Lawrence - NEIAS prez = Henry Beecher, related to Lyman and Harriet Beecher (wot a family, eh?) - big long boxes sent by NEIAS; they say they're "bibles" (actually rifles)
 * Important why?

Black Codes
- after Civil War, rules/laws for blacks - often very similar/identical to slavery laws - very discriminating
 * Northerners scratching their heads, "didn't they lose? Why still the almost-slavery?" -> want a crackdown on South to remind them they lost

Christiana Riot
- Christiana, PA a small town mostly populated by blacks - 1851 MD slaveholder Edward Gorsuch hears that an escaped slave of his, William Parker, is living in Christiana -> goes with son across Mason-Dixon line to get him - approach heralded by bells, town turns out to protect themselves and Parker - shots fired, Edward Gorsuch killed and his son badly injured - Parker and 34 others (32 blacks, 2 whites) arrested, all aquitted
 * infuriated South, showing that the North had no intention of obeying the Fugitive Slave Law
 * -> contributes to Southern fears of subversion of minority rights, legal rights of owning property

Colored Orphan's Asylum
- days after Gettysburg, anti-war riots in NY - riot led by Irish immigrants b/c of draft law - draft law says that those chosen by lottery MUST fight, or can hire a substitute, or pay $300 -> lower classes fighting - lower classes are the ones who hate/fear blacks the most (job competition from free blacks) - go around attacking/killing/pillaging/burning, etc., burn down Colored Orphan's Asylum - kill over 100, only stopped when Union soldiers from Gettysburg arrive
 * racism, even in North...
 * war getting bad, public not so approving

Crittenden Compromise
- around 1860-ish - John Crittenden of Kentucky proposes to reinstitute the Missouri Compromise, extending the Mason-Dixon line all the way to CA and ending all the fuss - a good idea that many might have agreed to, had it come to light a few years earlier
 * too late to turn back, even though plenty saw the reason in the compromise

__Dred Scott vs. Sanford__
- 1857 - Dred Scott a slave belonging to an army doctor who lived in MD - owner died, widow remarried to an abolitionist -> now the abolitionist owns a slave - Sanford (new owner) decides to see whether they can get slaves in free states free -> sets up court case - Supreme court initially throws the case out - later, Chief Justice of the Supreme court, Roger Taney, says: slaves aren't citizens so they can't bring suit to court. Plus, slaves are property os any law preventing ppl from having property is unconstitutional, hence NW Ordinance, Missouri Compromise, and pop. sov. are all unconstitutional
 * top-syturvy in the gov.: now South trusts the federal government
 * no longer a matter of state's rights versus federal government - now just North vs. South

Emancipation Proclamation
- Antietam "victory" allows Lincoln to whip out his Em. Proc. - originally, just a prelim. military proclamation: "the people in rebel territory can't keep slaves" (so the non-seceded slave states could keep their own states) - waits until Jan. 1, 1863 to approve the real deal (waited to see public opinion first)
 * gives the North a war aim (abolition) plus the moral high ground -> motive and will

Fort Pillow
- 1864, army led by Nathan Bedford Forest captures Fort Pillow - Nathan an ex-slave trader, mean and nasty, feared especially as a general (as opposed to respected, like Robert E. Lee) - after surrender, Nathan separates black and white soldiers -> shoots all the blacks (tho one escapes)
 * ? Nathan later becomes head of the KKK

Fort Sumter
- 1861 - Southern states seceding, Southerner taking over federal forts - Fort Sumter in SC, out in the middle of the bay -> had to be captured - ppl in Sumter resisting, so siege -> need help - Lincoln decides to send help, but on April 14th SC takes Fort Sumter
 * official start of Civil war

Freedman's Bureau
- 1865, freed blacks (plus others, like poor whites/those who fought and have nothing left to go back to) need help - provided food, shelter, etc., handled land/labor disputes in own courts - est. schools for blacks - rented out land to blacks w/ promise that they'd be able to buy it later - embraced, influenced by black preachers/teachers and white reformers - 1866 Congress votes to extend Freedman's Bureau -> Johnson vetoes
 * tensions btw liberalism and gov. intervention
 * radicals, some moderates flip out at Johnson's actions
 * fights over Civil Rights Bill, then 14th Amendment

Freeport Heresy
- Lincoln and Douglas debate for IL Senatorial position, 1858 - traveling around IL trying to get support - in reality not just for Senatorial position, but also preparation for president - in Freeport, IL, Lincoln pops Douglas a tricky question - "In light of Dred Scott, is pop. sov. a dead issue?" - if Douglas answers yes, loses entire platform. No, and he loses Southern support - says "no, not really."
 * loses most of what little Southern support he has left
 * Lincoln makes a name for himself, gets his image out to the public

Free Soil Party
- page 340 - 1848 election, basically a new and improved Liberty party that included Northern Democrats and Conscience Whigs - Van Buren broadens appeal of antislavery party by making it less radical (immediate abolition -> slow abolition/halt spread of slavery) - "Free Soil" = prohibit slavery in new areas - other features: homestead platform (give land to poor people instead of having them buy it, but they must "improve" it [i.e. farm] over 5 yrs), high tariff (protects domestic manufacturers) - ideology 1: slavery not just sin but also antithetical to republican and respectable values 1a - slaveholders have power but do not self-limit -> tyrannical, rough/proto-aristocratic 2b - slaves are made dependent though they may not necessarily be by nature (ex. Frederick Douglass) 1c - slavery restricts opportunity for white competitors 1d. antislavery w/o concern for slaves (hate expansion of slavery but not care about the slaves; white-man-ism) - ideology 2: comparison to slavery makes "free labor" a workable subsitute for producerism 2a - combines liberal repub values w/ renewed emphasis on individualism -> non-dependence redefined to mean controlling sale of labor only 2b - "wage slavery" by critics 2c - respectability/individualism redefines getting help as dependency -> unions bad
 * rationalization for industrial capitalist development

Friars Point coup
- MS; 1875; follows fight between black supporters of black Coahoma County sheriff John Milton Brown and white supremacists enflamed by accusations of opportunistic politician and planter, James Alcorn - Brown is one of the Black Republican sheriffs in MS, supportive of idealistic carpetbagger Gov. Ames - Alcorn is former Whig opposed to secession, then Confederate general, who quits and returns to MS - restores plantation’s economy; traitorously smuggles cotton through Confederate boycott for Union gold - becomes Republican politician after war; cynically exploits black voters for his own power - accuses Brown of embezzlement in 1875; precipitating tension and conflict at county seat of Friars Point - during “battle", white leader is heard yelling “Don’t kill these negroes, boys; we need cotton pickers.” - after confrontation, Brown is forced out of MS; flees to KS; Alcorn supporters take over as sheriff - from KS, Brown repays Coahoma County debts and aids freedmen for rest of life; embezzlement not likely - Alcorn dominates Coahoma County for rest of his life; all-black college in MS named after him (irony!)
 * indicative of success of white supremacists in “winning” that part of the Civil War by continuing practice of exploitable, controllable black labor, as opposed to equal access to opportunity for blacks

Fugitive Slave Law
- page 339-340 - part of Compromise of 1850 to gain Southern support - permitted any black to be captured and sent South at confirmation from the person claiming to be the owner; courts were 1 judge, no jury, only evidence coming from whites (usually the bounty hunter alone), and judges paid $10 if found guilty but only $5 if not guilty - required ALL US citizens to cooperate in capturing runaways NORTHERN RESPONSE TO FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW - North refuses to support it, lets runaways off scot-free - Underground Railroad becomes a symbol of Northern resistance - Christiana Riot - Uncle Tom's Cabin - general increase in civil disobedience SOUTHERN RESPONSE TO ANTI-FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW ACTS - __Aunt Phyllis' Cabin__ (pro-slavery "mirror image" of Uncle Tom's Cabin), Southern ban on __Uncle Tom's Cabin__ (even though no one in the South really read either anyways) - George Fitzhugh writes Sociology for the South
 * polarizes country into N/S sections

Gadsden Purchase
- one main issue of the time: transportation - wanted to build a big rail road, but where to? And where from? - Wanted to try making a transcontinental RR, but uncertainty as to whether it'd be in the North or in the South - Dec 1853 land purchased in the desert SW for a RR - pressure from North to get their own RR

George McClellen
- starting in 1861 - head of the US army, 1st one replaced by Winfield Scott, who was too fat, so he was replaced by McClellen - unfortunately, McClellen redefines coward and idiot - likes playing general but not fighting; fudges calculations; generally incompetant - disrespectful of Lincoln (was once his boss)
 * generally botches up fighting for a while, which means it's a while before the North wins anything

Gettysburg
- page 380 - July 1-4, 1863 at Gettysburg, PA (lasted 3 days, with over 50,000 deaths) - Robert E. Lee attacks to try and get a victory on Norther soil - hampered by missing R-hand man Stonewall (shot, killed some time earlier) - turned back http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/9/13/
 * never again would Lee have enough power to attack
 * South doesn't get European recognition/aid

Harper's Ferry
- 1859 - John Brown decides the time to free the slaves is now, decides to try and raid the federal arms reserve in Harper's Ferry, VA (WV now) - idea was to give arms to slaves and watch the "ripple effect" as slaves killed slaveholders and freed more slaves - funded by "Secret Six", wealthy abolitionists - real conspiracy - thwarted by Robert E. Lee - most of his men (including his son) killed, John Brown himself taken prisoner -> later tried, then hung
 * martyr to his cause -> indicates polarization (extremists "winning")

John Slidell
- page 323 - fall 1845, Polk sends John Slidell to Mexico City with proposal to settle disputes peacefully - authoried to cancel damage claims, pay $5 million in reparations if Mex agreed to set Rio Grande as border instead of Nueces River - also, to offer up to $5 million for province of New Mexico (included Nevada, Utah, parts of 4 other states) and up to $25 million for Calfornia - Mex government (both Jose Herrera and later, Paredes) refuse Slidell
 * failure of Slidell's mission -> provoking of Mexico to war

Kansas-Nebraska Act
- Douglas wanted to open up more western areas up to white settlement + wanted to try and get a transcontinental RR in the north - Southern congressmen had objected b/c the territory was above the Mason-Dixon line - to get the area accessible, Douglas ignored Missouri compromise in his bill (made it null and void) - said that the area would be admitted as a state when it got itself organized, and the issue of slavery would be dealt with via popular sovereignty - thought that the climate in the K/N area wouldn't be good for slavery, so not concerned w/ it too much - lots of pressure to get the area opened and politically/economically organized (farmers wanted more land, northerners wanted their own RR, slaveholders wanted to try and get new territory)
 * puts popular sov. to the test
 * dissolved the old 2-party system -> Whigs disappeared, Republicans appeared
 * ??? Any more?

Know Nothings
- nativist political party - originated from a secret fraternal society of native-born Protestants (anti-Cath); known as "The Order of the Star-Spangled Banner" - called such b/c they were supposed to say "I know nothing" when asked about their workings - big hit in New England (factory areas) -> 2nd biggest party in US 1853-55 - later declined b/c leaders had little experience
 * eroded loyalty to nat'l polit. parties, helped in decline of Whigs, undermined polit. system's attempts to contain the issue of slavery

Lecompton Constitution
- 1858 - KS, vote made on whether it'll be free or slave - 6000 pro-slavery border-hopping Missourians tip election to allow slavery - pro-slavery people draft a pro-slavery territorial constitution (Lecompton Constitution) - everyone knows it's fraudulent, but Buchanan wants to pass it anyway -> Douglas objects, "it's not REALLY what the people there want"
 * Douglas loses a lot of Southern support originally gained from the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Mexican Cession
- new territories from Mexico (CA, NV, UT, NM, parts of AZ, CO, KS, WY)
 * opens up two big questions:
 * 1. will slavery be allowed in the new territories? (see Wilmot Privoso)
 * 2. who will decide? Congress, the people (popular sovereignty), or courts?

New Orleans and Memphis Race Riots
- Memphis: magnet town for blacks, large Irish pop. (mayor, police force) (Irish hate blacks b/c competition for jobs) - collision btw coaches, Irish policeman arrests black coachman, black ex-Union soldiers ask "wtf, why him?" Irish policeman mouths off, more police come... -> whites go around, killing/burning/pillaging/etc. Mayor encourages such actions.
 * Northerners scratching heads, "didn't they lose? Why all this again?"

Nueces River
- page 323 - original border btw TX and Mexico as ordained by the Spanish gov. - 1845 John Slidell sent to Mexico city to propose: canceling damage claims and pay $5 million in reparations if Mexico agreed to make the Rio Grande the Tex-Mex border instead of the Nueces River (130 miles N of Rio Grande) - Mexico, still angry about the annexation of Texas, refuses - March 1846, Polk orders Zachary Taylor to send 3K troops from Corpus Christi, TX to the disputed land btw Nueces River/Rio Grande to "defend the Rio Grande" - tries to incite Mexicans into attacking so they have "moral high ground" over war; doesn't work, so Polk sends fake war message (which actually coincides with real attack, April 25 1846) - May 9th, Congress mostly backs war except for 1 IL Senator, Abe Lincoln -> ends his political career until some time later
 * first bite of poison (starts many controversies, splits much of America)
 * - supporters: blamed Mex for hostilities (severed relations w/ US, threatened war, didn't pay damages)
 * - opposition: immoral land grab by expansionists (slaveocracy conspiracy!) vs. weak neighbor, had provoked Mex, blamed also on expansionist Westerners + Eastern trading interests (trade w/Asia)
 * - Mexicans: denounced war as brazen attempt by US to seize Mex lands

Ostend Manifesto
- covert effort by Democrats to take Cuba from Spain - reasons: Southerners wanted Cuban slaves + territory, others wanted to free Cuba's white pop. from Spanish rule - Franklin Pierce sends 3 ministers to Spain to offer $ for Cuba (up to $130 million) - Spain refuses, kicks ministers out -> they end up in Ostendo, Belgium - letter sent to President: "we're gonna try another time, but if they rebuff us again we're totally justified in grabbing Cuba" - letter (Ostend Manifesto) leaked out to press - Franklin can't take Cuba b/c of the publicity
 * Northerners convinced of a Slave Power Conspiracy

Popular Sovereignty
- page 338 - 1848 election, proposal to stop/prevent conflict over whether states should be free or slave - introduced by 2 key Democratic Senators, Lewis "Gas" Cass of MI and Stephen Douglas of IL - states that those who live in a state decide its fate as a free or slave state - America a democracy, so it stands that the people should decide
 * WHY IMPORTANT?

Pottawatomie Massacre
- page 348 - devout Calvinist John Brown thinks he is an instrument of God's will, thinks he'll be the one to overthrow slavery - after Sack of Lawrence, called that the time to fight fire with fire was nigh - Brown plus 6 others attack five people from Pottawatomie, kill them
 * started up the mini-wars in Bleeding Kansas

Sack of Lawrence
- page 347 - town of Lawrence, KS a Free Soil stronghold - spring of 1856, pro-slavery people attack the town/Free State hotel (claim it's a fortress, and are somewhat true) - did some property damage, stealing, only one person killed (pro-slavery bystander hit on the head with a brick from a damaged building)
 * incited Pottawatomie Massacre

__Sociology for the South__
- pro-slavery piece written by George Fitzhurgh in 1854 - a very intellectual piece (first written work to have "sociology" in the title) - - all prosperity based on forced labor - - all liberal economics support greed as an outgrowth of the laws of nature (selfishness inherent in humans) - - all nature shows that the strong prey upon the weak (proto-Darwinism) - - slaveholders at the very least uphold worker's welfare, so both benefit while avoiding class conflicts - - claims that slavery will cure the ills of northern capitalist society
 * Importance?

Special Field Order #15
- Sherman followed around by a lot of free slaves, wants them off his tail -> Special FO#15 - temporarily gives blacks 40 acres and a mule, provided they farm the land they're given and improve it
 * first of land distribution, even though it wasn't really fully official

Stephen A. Douglas
- senator from IL - pushed the Compromise of 1850 through - responsible in large part for the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Sumner-Brooks Incident
- page 346-348 - Charles Sumner delivers 2-day speech "Crimes Against Kansas", charging there was a S. conspiracy to make KS a slave state - made personal statements against man Andrew Butler (drooled because he was old -> "drooling over the harlot, slavery") VERY RUDE at the time - two days later Butler's nephew Congressman Preston Brooks finds Sumner nearly alone in the Senate chamber, proceeds to beat Sumner into a coma with his cane - Sumner in a coma for 3 years, is a martyr to the N, even reelected while in a coma - Brooks hailed as a hero, given many many canes, not punished (unable to)
 * polarization, divergent sectional view of others (S think N are all talk but no walk, N sees S as proto-aristocratic tyrants with little restrain)

Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo
- page 328 - also known as Trist's Treaty - Feb. 2, 1848, Nicholas Trist (Spanish-speaking official, was actually recalled to US to be replaced but stuck around in Mex) signed the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo - Treaty says Mex only cedes areas originally wanted by Polk - CA, NV, UT, NM, parts of AZ, CO, KS, WY for $15 million + assumption of $3.25 million in debt Mex owed the US - also placed border of US/Mex as the Rio Grande - ultra-expansionists, Polk pissed but war-weary public wants it to end plus a treaty has already been signed -> war ends
 * implications of Mexican War:
 * - racism, force as part of American Manifest Destiny (no waiting for divine signs, just DO IT)
 * - trains generation of military leaders
 * Wilmot Privoso and Mexican Cession

__Trent__
- 1862 - Southerners need Eur. recognition to become own nation, need help in the war - send diplomats to Br. ship Trent - North on the San Jacinto stops Br. ships to get S diplomats - N people happy, S and Br. angry - Lincoln does absolutely nothing until tensions have cooled -> sends apology (a backhanded one, albeit)
 * S doesn't get Br. help

William Tecumseh Sherman
- general under Ulysses S. Grant - responsible for Special Field Order #15 - undertook the march to Atlanta
 * destroyed much on his way there and captured RR center/industrial center for the South
 * victory helped Lincoln win a second term in office

Wilmot Proviso
- page 329 - summer 1846, Congressman David Wilmot, PE Democrat and Free Soiler introduces an amendment known as the Wilmot Proviso to a war appropriations bill - WP: forbids slavery inany territory aquired from Mexico - North feared free workers would be unable to compete with slave labor; South denounced WP as "treason to the Constitution"; Polk tried to settle by saying that slavery wouldn't take root in the SW, but to no avail - never became law (passed House twice, but turned down in the Senate) - outrage from slaveholders, hardcore abolitionists (not addressing freeing of slaves)
 * issue it raised (extension of slavery into western territory) contributed greatly to growth of political factionalism

__Uncle Tom's Cabin__
- page 340-341 - 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe (daughter of Lyman Beecher) writes book __Uncle Tom's Cabin__ based off learnings of slavery while in Ohio, near Kentucky plus inspiration that struck when she was at church - wanted to unify North and South by saying that slavery brutalizes all, and that both N and S are to blame for economic sins - to illustrate this, used varying characters (ex. good law-abiding kind Southern family, evil Northern overseer [representing capitalism as well]) - a real thriller back then; climactic scene of fugitive slave Eliza, with her children, escaping across ice floes in the frozen Ohio river as they flee bloodhounds -> elicits horror, sympathy
 * irony: both sides miss the subtleties -> polarizes North and South